Grain-binder



0. B. WITHINGTONQ Grain Binder No. 234,638. Patented Nov. 16, 1880.

W '%AM\WM xxh zm PL PETERS, PHOTOJ GRAPHER. WASHINGTON, u c.

4 Sheets-Sheet 1.

. 4Sheets-Sheet 2. O. B. WITHINGTON.

Grain Binder. No. 234,638. Patented Nov. 16, I880.

WITNESSES I .N V E JV T 0]? I i rl 533W By fills Attorneys. a e a 8M QAQMNM' WW, 5

N.FETERS, PHDTO-LJTNOGRAPH-ER, WASHINGTON. D C.

4 Sheets-Sheet 3.

C. B. WITHINGTON.

Grain Binder.

No. 234,638. Patented Nov. 16,1889.

Tani T ILFEIERS. PHOTO-LHHDGRAPHER, WASHINGTON n G 4 Sheets- Sheet 4.

O. B. ,WITHINGTON.

Grain Binder.

No. 234,638. Patented Nov. 16,1880.

PVITNESSES By his 'Attm-neys,

m wwmw vw NFETERS. FHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER. WASHNGTON, D. C.

CHARLES B. WITHINGTON, OF JANESVILLE, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOR TO CYRUS H. MOCORMICK,,LI1]ANDER J. MCCORMICK, AND ROBERT HALL MCCORMICK? ALL OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

GRAIN-BINDER.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 284,638, dated November 16, 1880. Application filed March 5, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. Wrrnrne- TON, formerly of Lewisbnrg, in the county of Union and State of Pennsylvania, but now 1e siding at- Janesville, in the county of Rock and State of \Visconsin, have invented a new and useful lmprovementin Grain-Binders, of which the following is a specification.

My invention consists in combining with a wire-reel, a grain-binding arm, and a bindinghead a rotating spring tension-drum take-up between the reel and the binding-head, which take-up receives the wire by way of its hollow center and through an eye leading to its pe- 1 riphery, and has the wire then wound upon its periphery the number of times required to produce the requisite tension, whereby the slack of wire or other material used for binding, be yond the quantity required for each bundle, is

retracted and wound back upon the drum by the action of the spring of the drum, and is thus kept in a condition for being used under the proper tension when another gavel is being bound.

The operation is such that as fast as the surplus wire is drawn from the drum an additional quantity of wire from the reel takes its place thereon, and thereby a uniform tension is maintained upon the wire, while the tension- 0 drum is relieved from carrying around the weight of the reel of wire, and the wire between the tension drum and reel is relieved from strain.

In the accompanying drawings, which represent so much of a grain -binding harvester as is necessary to illustrate the subject-matter herein claimed, my improvement is shown as embodied in a grain-binder adapted to the use of two wires, as shown in Letters Patent No.

0 123,967, granted to me February 20, 1872, and No. 186,186, granted January 9, 1877. This last mentioned patent (the application for which constitutes a division of this one) fully describes the construction and operation ofthe 4 5 machine, but disclaims the subjectmatter herein claimed. Everything shown in that patent is disclaimed herein, except as specified in the claim at the end of this specification.

As the details of construction and operation of the machine are fully set forth in the abovementioned Patent No. 186,186, it is deemed unnecessary to recapitulate them here.

In the drawings, Figure lrepresents a plan or top view of so much of my improved apparatus as is necessary to illustrate the subjectmatter herein claimed; Fig. 2, a vertical section therethrough on the line 1 1 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a section therethrough on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1; Fig. i asimilar section on the line 3 3 ofFig. 1; Fig. 5, a vertical section through the tension-drum on the line 4 4 of Fig. 4, and Fig. 6 a view representing a modification of the reel and shaft-but as this modification is shown and describedin my Patent No.186,186 it need not be further described here. 6

The cut grain is conveyed from the platform (underneath the elevating-apron E) into a suitable receptacle. The binding mechanism proper in this instance is shown as mounted upon a carriage, F, reciprocating on suitable 7o guideways mounted upon the frame B, and reciprocatcd by means of a traversing-chain,

E, and slotted link rigidly secured upon and imparting intermittent rotating motion to a crank-shaft, M, mounted upon the traversing- 5 carriage.

A binding-arm, K ,'vibrates with a rockshaft, L mounted upon a standard, F, secured upon the binding-carriage. A crank, 25, on the crank shaft M is connected by a pitman, N, with a crank of the rock-shaft L above mentioned. The crank t, of course, revolves with its crank shaft; but, being shorter than the crank 1 the shaft L is only rocked or vibrated, instead of being revolved, as it would be were the cranks of equal radius.

The wire-carrying arm K is mounted on the inner end of the'rook-shaft L (see Fig. 2,) its outer extremity being bifurcated so as to form two prongs, p 12, carrying friction-pulleys on their ends. When the binding-arm is closed to carry the wire into the twister one of these prongs comes on each side of the twistinghead, as shown in Fig. 4.

A binding-head, G, is mounted upon the 5 binding-carriage in proper relation to the binding-arm.

In the drawings the wire is shown as supplied from two reels, T T. The wire 2 from the reel T passes over a pulley, o, and a roller, 5, directly to the binding-head, while the wire z from the reel T passes downward over a pulley, c, on the binding-carriage F to the wirecarrying arm K In order to preserve the proper tension on the bindingwire, it is passed through and around a tension-drum, S, arranged at a point intermediate between the wire-reel and the grain-binding head. This tension-drum may be located upon the reciprocating bindingframe, or on its supports, at any point found most convenient. It is shown as mounted on an arm projecting from the standard F. The drum rotates upon a hollow arbor, W, between which and the drum is a coiled spring, secured at one end to the hollow arbor and at the other to the drum. The wire passes through the hollow arbor, around the guide-roller through a slot in the drum, being then wound one or more times around the periphery of said drum.

In Fi 5 both wires are shown as thus carried through the tensiondrum, one in full and the other in dotted lines.

The reels T T are so constructed that one revolves with its shaft while the other is acted upon by a spring, W Fig. 3, by which mode of construction one intermediate tension is made available for controlling the wire from both reels, while either may be operated separately when required.

The wire 2, leading from the reel T, is shown in Fig. 2 as carried around the pulley c, through the hollow arbor of the tensioirdrum S, around its guidepulley, through the hole in the flange of the drum, and around the periphery of the drum, around which the wire is wound spirally as often as the coils of the spring within the drum will permit, or as may be required in taking up the slack necessary to produce the required tension on the wire. The wire is carried from the drum over the. pulley 5 of the upper fork, p, of the wire-carrying arm, and is united with the wire 2, which passes from the reel T, around the pnlleyc, Fig. 2, thence over a friction-pulley through the slot of the binding-head, where it is united to the other wire,z, by twistingthe ends of the wire together below the binding-head, as at 2 Fig. 3.

The subsequent twisting operations are performed automatically.

As the gavels are bound wire is drawn from both reels T T, and as both are connected with the same shaft the wire paid out from the reel T will be regulated by the movement of the reel T, which is intermittingly driven by the strain upon the wire by,the wire-carryin g arm. The wires pass over pulleys 5 5 above and below the binding-head, as well as over the rollers 5 5 on the binding-arm.

Instead of having onlyone Wire pass through the tension-drum, both wires may be thus passed through, and when this is done, as shown in Fi 5, the tension upon both wires will be equal, and they will consequently pay out uniformly from both reels.

I am aware that interi'nediate take-up devices of various kinds have been employed in connection with braidingand sewing machines.

I am also aware that it has been proposed to use a simple spring-arm, through a loop in which the binding material is passed on its way to the binding-head from the spool; but I am not aware that prior to the date of my invention any intermediate take-up had been adapted to grain-binding machinery, which take-u p possessed the function of winding backward upon itself or retracting the slack \vire irrespective of the condition of the wire between the take-up and the wire-reel--tlr.tt is, without exertin g strain upon the wire between the reel and take-up, which is the particular characteristic or function of my take-up tension-drum, the advantage of which has been amply demonstrated in practice.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination, substantially as hercinbefore set forth, of a wire-reel, a wirecarrying arm, a bindinghead, and a rotating spring tension-drum take-up intermediate between the wire-reel and binding-head, whereby the slack wire is retracted without strain upon the wire between the tension-drum and the wirereel.

OHARLES B. WITHIN GTON.

Witnesses:

J. N. CAMPBELL, JAMES MARTIN, Jr.

Correction for Letters Patent No. 234a,.

Whereas, Letters Patent No. 234,638, dated November 16, 1880, were by a clerical error granted-nmler an assignment recorded in the Patent ()fiiee in Liber U19, pages 457 to Mil-to Oyrus H. McGormick, Leander J. McCormick, and Robert Hall McCormick, and whereas it appears from said assignment that said Letters Patent should have been granted to the firm of G. H. and L. J. McCormick, therefore, it is hereby certified that the words Cyrus H. McCormick, Leander J McCormick, and Robert Hall, and the word all were erroneously inserted in lines 8 and 9, and the words Cyrus H. McCormick, Leander J. McCormick, and Robert Hall were erroneously inserted in line 16 of the grant of said Letters Patent, and in the caption of the specification thereof, and that the words G. H. 85 L. J. were erroneously omitted in the same places, and that said words have this day been respectively cancelled and inserted in the proper places in the records of said Letters Patent in this Office, and in the said Letters Patent.

Signed, countersigned, and sealed this 18th day of December, A. 1)., 1880. [SEAL] A. BELL,

Acting Secretary of the Interior.

Gountersigned E. M. MARBLE,

Ommnisstone'r of Patents. 

